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Friday, January 25, 2008

Psalm 27: Goodness

"I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (v.13)

I have one place of confidence,one place of restand peace and hope.I have one place of surety,where couragecan be foundand strengthwaits for the taking.I have one place of wisdomwhere foolishness wanesand truth grants freedom.Alone I am not confident,no pride in strengthor knowledgeor character.I know who I am,the duplicity of my heart,the weakness of resolve,the covert disloyaltythat makes me susceptibleto temptation's hook.I have one place of confidence,it isn't a theologya booka set of principlesa well-researched observationa worldview.No, my confidence is in You.You are my hope becauseYou are Good.I rest in the goodness of yoursovereignty,in the goodness of yourpower, in the goodness of yourfaithfulness,in the goodness of yourwisdom,in the goodness of your patience,in the goodness of yourmercy,in the goodness of yourholiness,in the goodness of yourgrace.I have learnedand I am learningthat the physical delightsof the created worldwere not designed to bethe sourceand hopeof my confidence.No, all of those thingsin their temporary elegancewere meant to besignpoststhat point me to theeternalnever-failingalways availablenever-changingalways holygrace-infusedgoodness that can only be foundin You.I have learnedand I am learningthat confident livingalways rests its foundationon You.I am confident because of this solitary thing,You areand you are good.

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I pursued you briefly, Paul, after the service with my confession of sin. I've known for a long time that I am angry at God, to the point that I've bored people mentioning it. Atheism may be more socially acceptible than saying that one believes in God but is angry anyway.

It would be convenient if I could blame my anger at God on the U. S. Army, but the truth is that my anger at Him surfaced long before I joined the Army.

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Welcome to the Paul Tripp Ministries blog. What motivates us? Well, we are convinced that many people live with a big gap in their understanding of what God has done for them. They understand that Jesus died so that their sins can be forgiven and they understand that he died so that they would have a future with him in eternity. But they simply don't understand what Jesus has provided for them so that they can face the harsh realities of life in this broken world with hope and courage. We believe it is not enough to believe in life after death, we believe in real hope of life before death. We believe in real hope of personal growth and change. We believe in real hope of community and institutional change. Why? Because we believe in the transforming power of Jesus Christ. His grace is able to make broken things new again. This is our mission, to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.
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